Why The Huckabee Pardon Issue Matters

I saw this via Instapundit


TA-NEHISI COATES: A bum rap for Huckabee. “I think it’s important for liberals concerned about criminal justice to speak up on principle. That it’s Mike Huckabee–whose views on gay rights, abortion and the Confederate flag, I find deplorable–pursuing that principle shouldn’t change things. We keep saying we want conservatives to be ‘reasonable’ about these issues. It strikes me as unhelpful to knife one for short-term partisan gain.”
Here’s the thing: If you grant clemency much, the odds will catch up with you eventually. Some of those people will be recidivists, no matter how solid or heartstring-pulling the story, and some of that recidivism will be dreadful. I don’t know enough about the merits of this case to say whether this was a bad call, but if politicians get hammered a lot when the odds catch up with them, then they won’t issue many pardons or commutations. But, as I noted in criticizing Bush’s stinginess with pardons, executive clemency is supposed to play an important role in mitigating the inevitable injustices of the criminal justice system.
Posted at 10:21 pm by Glenn Reynolds.

Exactly!! There is a reason why the pardon power has a long long long history. It sort of amazes me that more conservatives don't get this. Why is it that just some liberals and libertarians get this?

Conservatives of course are right to be concerned about the overwhelming power of the state and that there is no check on it. But once it comes to the criminal justice system it seems they lose interest. This despite the federalization of Crime is increasing as well as states making criminal more and more conduct with much harsher sentences. When the State puts you in jail there is not much more power than that.

The pardon power is designed to be a important check on that because as the above person notes there will be "inevitable injustices".

The critcisms of Bush in this regard are I hate to say valid.

One can debate of course if Huckabee used the right judgement in these cases I suppose. But the underlying theme that using the Pardon power is a sign of a FAUX conservative is depressing.